Bulk packaging container



Nav. 29, 1960 Filed March 3, 1958 W. G. SHEARD BULK PACKAGING CONTAINER3 Sheets-Sheet 1 v"'m' w" IHIIIIIIW'HII nu i211 WWI WI" I i 2 t 2 W 5|"mum" .nllllll'" /L I I I INVENTOR. 1 WILLIAM 6514mm n ml ITITII' 1MB 7FE 1A ,ymfm

Nov. 29, 1960 w. e. SHEARD 2,962,159

BULK PACKAGING CONTAINER Filed March :5, 1958 s Sheets-She et 2INVENTOR. WILLIAM G. 5HE4ED ATTORNEYS.

Nov. 29. 1960 w. G. SHEARD BULK PACKAGING CONTAINER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3Filed March 3, 1958 D 2 mm H i M M u ATT O ENEVQ P Pailiented Ne 22 396?) BULK PACKAGING CONTAINER William G. S heard, Westlake, Ohio,assignor to St. Regis Paper Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation ofNew York Filed Mar. 3, 1958, Ser. No. 123,076 9 Claims. (Cl. 206-46)This invention relates to bulk packaging and more particularly to aninexpensive, preferably, knock-down and/or disposable large, light,corrugated paper board carton or container as of about a cubic yard or aton or more capacity, suitable for loading, shipping, handling andstoring such dry, discrete and/or powdered, materials as flour, frit,cement, salt, starch, sugar, clay, sand, talc, borax and the like. r

The problem solved by my invention arose in relation tothe volume, kind,and mass of the material to be packaged and the size of the container. Acorrugated board box or package for a pound of cement, for example,would pose no problem of strength or sufliciency for the mechanical andstructural burdens of loading, handling, shipping, storage or the like,but the provision of two thousand such pacakges for a ton of cementwould involve an extraordinary and prohibitive cost. The familiar clothand paper packages for fifty pound lots of cement represents a known,multiple-aspect compromise between such factors as strength, cost,protection of contents, breakage, handling facility and disposability.Relative economies and facilities have been sought or sometimes gainedby providing bigger and stronger packages for the handling, shipping andstorage of larger unit quantities of dry bulk materials; the familiarwooden barrel and 50 gallon hard paper board drum comprising steps inthat direction. These larger packages have in turn their limitations ofcost and convenience, on the one hand, and have a strict'limitationofsize in respect to cost; the cost becoming prohibitive if size issought to,

be increased, and strength preserved, for the bulk packaging operationof the magnitude made possible and practicable by my invention. e Y

It is among the objects of my invention to solve the problems discussedabove, and, more particularly, to provide large, light, efiicient andeconomical packages for dry bulk material.

' Another object is to provide a knock-down, corrugated paperboardcontainer of unexpectedly large size for handling, storing, and shippingdry bulk material. A more specific object is to provide a paper boardcontainerso designed and constructed that it will do the workof more.costly packages of much more apparent strength made according to priorpractices for storing,

shipping and'handling dry bulk material.

Another object is to provide a corrugated paper board container for drybulk material in which the contents of the container is caused tofunction as a load bearing element for support of external load tosupplement and/or substitue for the verticalor colmnar strength of: thecontainer assuch. Another object is to provide a container with avertical side .wall disposed between upperand lower end caps, whereinthe wall has an upper" portion 'of strength sutficient to confine thecontents during the filling of the container, but of sutficient weaknessto permit the upper end'cap to telescope downwardly over the sidewallunder external superimposed.

load and compact or condense the contents whereby to is to provide forslip between the contents and the vertical wall of a bulk container tofacilitate the transfer of external load to the contents thereof for thepreservation of the wall and container.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following descriptionof preferred forms of my invention, reference being had to theaccompanying drawing, in which: V

Figure '1 is a side elevation of my container.

Figure 1a is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modifiedform.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken in the plane of the line 22 ofFigure 1.

Figure 2a is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing a modified form.

Figure 3 is a partially broken away vertical, median, longitudinalsection of the container of Figure 1 in an empty condition and prior tohaving borne external load.

Figure 4 is a plan of a board cut to be formed into an end cap for mycontainer.

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary, vertical, longitudinal section ofthe upper end of the vertical side wall and the adjacent parts of theupper cap of one form of my container when the latter has been filledwith dry bulk material and before an external load has been imposed onthe cap.

Figure 6 is a view corresponding to Figure 5 taken after an externalload has been imposed on the upper end cap.

Figures 7 and 8 are views corresponding to Figures 5 and 6 respectivelyshowing, however, a modified form of side wall.

Figures 9 and 10 are views corresponding to Figures 5 and 7 as to theside walls and show further modifications thereof for useful coactionwith end caps and contents of containers embodying my invention similarto that shown in comparison between Figures 5 and 6 or 7 and 8.

A preferred form of my invention, Figures 1-4, inclusive, comprises aflat-foldable, polyangular (12-sided as shown) cylindrical vertical sidewall W, made. of doublefaced corrugated paper board, having its lowerend snugly" and telescopically fitted within a lower end cap L and itslower edge bearing .upon or fitting snugly upon the; margin of areinforcing liner 1 interiorly of the lower end cap. An upper end cap Uwhich may be the same as the lower end cap lacking the liner 1 ifdesired, tele scopically fits overthe upper end of the wall W and closesthe container.

The wall W is adapted to be unfolded and snap-fittedinto the lower capLsnugly atthe'time and place of use,

i.e. just prior to filling the container. .Atthat time I when thefilling promptly follows the gluing.

The end caps are eachfpreferably. formed of stout double-facedcorrugated paper board; a sheet being cutand creased as shown in Figure4 with a plurality (12 ml this example) of integral tabs 2 beingfoldable up to: right angles with the main body of the sheet, seeFigures, 3, 5, 6, etc., in which position they are held by andpreferably stapled or otherwise secured to an encircling.

. hoop or belt 3. The belts 3 are also preferably made of stoutdouble-faced corrugated board. The belts like the wall W areconveniently made of flat sheet material properly creased for easyfolding and bending along the crease lines for flat-folded shipment andpreliminary handling. Abutting ends of the belt 3, Figure 1, likeabutting ends of the wall W, Figures 1 and 2, may be firmly and bendablyjoined together as with adhesive tape T and/or tape and staples S.Alternatively the ends of the wall W and/or belt 3 may be joined in alap joint, Figure 2a, preferable with a full panel overlap, glue G and/or staples S.

In Figures la and 4 an alternative form of cap construction isillustrated; the tabs 2 being notched as at N as suggested in dottedlines in Figure 4 and solid lines in Figure 14 so that when the tabs arebent upwardly the notches serve to locate a metal strap 10, tied orbuckled at 11, snugly holding the tabs upright and preferably in gluedengagement with the lower part of the wall W, and strongly reinforcingthe whole bottom structure of the container.

As shown in Figures 3 and to inclusive, an appreciable part of the upperend of the wall W is (1) weak.- ened in bending and in resistance tovertical load bearing strength, or made of relatively telescoping parts,Figure 10, while (2) preserving its vertical and circumferentialcontinuity and integrity and its ability to contain bulk material up tothe full height and brim of the wall.

In the form shown in Figures 3, 5 and 6 the upper end of the wall W, forthe whole circumferential length of the wall and for a depth butslightly less than the depth of the upper cap U, is flattened as at 4having its inner corrugated sheet crushed to weaken the wall inresistance to bending and in resistance to columnar loads imposed uponit by the cap U, when external load is imposed upon the cap. Thisweakness created in the upper end of the wall W serves to permit andencourage the cap U to move downwardly relative to the wall W, andtelescope over the unweakened part of the wall, compare Figures 5 and 6,under external vertical load on the cap. When the container is empty thecrushing and bending down of the upper part of the wall W by the uppercap U will not necessarily be advantageous. But when the container hasfirst been filled up to the brim of the wall W with dry discrete bulkmaterial, Figure 5, and the upper cap U fitted over the top of the wallW, Figures 3 and 5, then when external vertical load is imposed upon thecap, the upper part of the wall W will oifer little or no resistance tothe downward telescoping movement of the cap with respect thereto. Thenthe uppermost part of the weakened portion 4 of the wall will be bentand/or turned inwardly progressively as at 5, Figure 6, permitting andencouraging the cap to engage, compress and compact the contents M andthereby cause the contents to support the cap instead of causing orpermitting the wall to support the cap. That is to say, it is a featureof my invention that external vertical load on the upper cap istransferred from the wall structure of the container to the contents bythe intended yielding of the weakened upper part of the wall whilepreserving, however, the strength and integrity of the rest of thecontainer and particularly all the other parts of the wall W.

In Figure 6, the cap has been displaced downwardly an appreciabledistance accompanied by the bending of the wall W, and the contents havebeen compacted as sug gested by the reference character M and the moreabundant dots and dashes. The extent of the movement of the capdownwardly from the initial full-but-notcompacted condition of Figure 5to the compacted loadbearing content condition of Figure 6 will dependupon the nature of the contents, on the one hand, and variously upon theaeration or deaeration of the contents, inter alia, on the other hand.Such considerations, which can be readily ascertained, will determinethe desirable extent of the telescoping motion of the upper cap relativeto the wall, and, therefore, the vertical length of the side walls ofthe cap and the desirable and/ or corresponding length of the weakenedupper portion of the side wall W. As Figure 6 suggests the length of theweakened portion 4 of the wall W may prudently exceed the bent length 5thereof when the container is hearing its maximum intended load, such,for example, as the stacking of half a dozen, more or less, likecontainers, similarly loaded, upon it.

Present observations and tests suggest that one aspect of the mode ofoperation of my invention is that when the dry bulk contents iscompacted, progressive truncated cones of load bearing support,suggested by dotted and dashed lines respectively in Figure 3, arecreated depending on the weight of the applied load and, among otherthings, the angle of repose of the bulk material under the conditionsobtaining within and about the container under a particular load. Thus,for well-deaerated, fine, dry, bulk material having high adhesionbetween its discrete flakes or particles, and having, therefore, a highangle of repose in my container, a medium external load would probablyform a truncated cone of support about as suggested within the dottedline 6.

On the other hand, as I am presently led to believe, if the contents aremore coarse and/ or less minutely adhesive or less effectivelycompactable under load and under the conditions then obtaining, then fora same medium external load the truncated cone of support would morelikely take the fatter" form suggested by the dashed line 7 in Figure 3accompanied by a greater downward compacting motion of upper particleswith respect to lower particles of the contents and with greatertelescoping motion of the upper cap relative to the side walls. Whetheror not my hypotheses and conclusions are literally accurate I haveobserved that the telescoping action of the upper cap with respect tothe container and its initially full-but-not-compacted contents doescause the contents to assume the load and become the essential loadbearing element; relieving the side wall W of substantially all directvertical load in compression but imposing circumferentially actingtensile stress in the side wall depending on the fluidity of thecontents as reflected in the form of the cone of support as I have triedto describe it. The greatest circumferential tensile stress tends to bedeveloped at and near the bottom of the wall W where it is stronglysupported by the lower cap L. The twelve-sided form of the wall Wapproaches circular cylindrical form in its facility of exerting greatstrength in circumferential tension. In using the term fluidity, Isuggest the general freedom of movement of particles and thedistribution of forces similar to that obtaining in liquids. The morethe contents of my container resemble and function like a liquid interms of fluidity and gross incompressibility, the less fully may thefunctions and advantages of my invention be achieved. For example, whencontainers embodying my invention are filled with dry discrete orpowdered material such as fiour, of relatively low fluidity andappreciably high compressibility, many such containers may be stacked,one atop another and the strength thereof in support of vertical loadwill be developed according to the precepts of my invention. But whensuch containers with such contents are transported in railroad freightcars, for example, which tend to jiggle and vibrate the contents of mycontainers, the vibrated material may tend to gain a fluidity orlikeness to fluidity, flattening the cone of support and tending tostress the side walls in tension almost as if the contents had acquiredthe flowing characteristics of a liquid.

Therefore, I employ corrugated paper board in the wall W of suflicientcircumferential tensile strength, when supplemented by the caps L and U,to sustain the liquidlike loading of the wall under the vibration oftransportation; stacking loads happily being small when the containersare subjected to vibration in transportation and such vibration beingvery small or absent when the corn tainers are greatly stacked. When thecontainers are stored and stacked in appreciable multiples, the jigglingand vibration, if any, incident to handling and storing tends tofacilitate the compacting of the contents and stabilizing the cone ofsupport preliminarily to the imposition of the stacking load and withadvantage and facility to the mode of operation and results of myinvention.

In the form of my invention shown in Figures 7 and and 8, the wall W isterminated at about a height corresponding to the bottom of theflattened part 4 of Figures 3, 5 and 6. Interiorly of the wall W,however, is disposed a separate, removable, heavy sheet of paper Phaving a free upper length 40, stout and imperforate enough to containthe material M up to the brim of the container at the uppermost edge ofthe sheet P, and weak enough in bending to be bent as at 50, Figure 8,as the cap U telescopes downwardly over the wall W and sheet P,compressing the contents to the compacted state M substantially asdescribed above with reference to Figures 3, 5 and 6.

The sheet P is, however, preferably waxed or otherwise coated ordistinguished to have a low or reduced frictional engagement with thewall W and/or with the contents M and/or M, especially when the contentsare being compacted under external vertical load. Under such conditions,certain dry bulk materials appear to have a deleteriously high adhesionto or for or high frictional attachment to the ordinary dry paper boardWall W or W of the container such that the wall tends to be engaged bythe being-compacted contents, probably at or near the base of the coneof support 7, Figure 3, and then wrinkled and crunched downwardly,rupturing or tending to rupture the wall with loss of contents and otherundesirable incidents. The waxed or anti-friction paper P permits thebeing-compacted contents to slip down along or relative to the wallfreely or freely enough to avoid the said undesirable wrinkling and/orrupturing. The use of a separate sheet of waxed paper P is convenientfor the purposes mentioned. While Ive shown the sheet P with the upperportion 40, it is also practicable to employ a shorter sheet disposedinside the wall W, Figure 5, which would not participiate at all in thebending of the part 4, and in some circumstances not necessarilystanding any higher than about the base of the cone 7 so long as thatmuch or little anti-friction effect is suflicient to avoid wrinkling orrupturing the wall under the conditions of stacking and material andotherwise that induces or tends to induce the same.

In Figure 9, a modified form W2 of the wall W is partly shown andsuggested. There the board of the wall has its inner and/or outer linersheets 9 extended upwardly beyond the corrugated body 9a whereby theextended portions 44 have the flexibility and other desirablecharacteristics of the parts 4 of the wall W and 40 of the wall Whereinabove illustrated and described.

In Figure 10, the Wall W, of Figures 7 and 8, instead of having upperflexibility related to it by parts such as 4, 40 or 44 above described,gains much the same mode of operation and results by coaction with aninner telescopically received, not necessarily inflexible board or paperband or ring 400. The ring 400 is positioned about as shown in Figure 10for filling the container as in Figures 5 and 7 to provide a high brimfor bulk contents before being compacted. Thereafter when the containeris capped and externally loaded, the ring 400 may telescope down intothe wall W with and permitting the downward movement of the cap U, orthe ring 400 may both telescope and bend or be flexible enough to justbend. In all events, the ring 400 will yield to downward movement of thecap U to carry out the desired mode of operation and results oftransferring external vertical load from the side wall to the contentsof the container for the advantages and purposes of my invention.

An example of a present commercially successful embodiment of myinvention comprises a container which stands 60 inches high and has adiameter, measured from flat to flat of the polyangular wall, of 48inches which when loaded with dicalcium phosphate of the fineness whichwill pass through a 300 mesh screen weighs about 3000 pounds. In thispackage the upper cap U has a depth of about 10 inches and the side wallhas an upper brim portion which is weakened for a depth of about 8inches. When such a container has been filled to the brim with materialmentioned above and loaded with a vertical superimposed load on theupper cap of about 6000 pounds the contents will be compacted a littleless than 8 inches and the container, except for the telescoping of thecap and the bending of the upper flex-f ible part of the side wall, willhave retained its entire initial shape, strength, appearance and virtue.In the use of such container with such material it was not necessary touse wax paper or other anti-friction material between the contents andthe inner face of the corrugated paper board wall. The wall was,however, made of double thickness having two corrugated portionssandwiched between three stout paper liners.

While I have illustrated and described preferred forms and examples ofmy invention, changes and improvements Will occur to those skilled inthe art who come to use my invention and understand my teaching aboutthe same. Therefore, I do not care to be limited in the scope of mypatent to the forms herein specifically illustrated and described nor inany manner incommensurate with the progress to which my invention haspromoted the art.

I claim:

1. A bulk packaging container filled to its capacity with notsubstantially less than about a cubic yard of dry bulk material contentsand having strength when filled suflicient to support vertical externalload exceeding the weight of its own contents, comprising a verticalright cylindrical wall of less strength in vertical compression thanthat required to support such an external load but having strength incircumferential tension, a bottom closure, and an upper captelescopically overlying and receiving the upper end of said wall, meansat the upper end of said wall comprising the brim thereof havingstrength to contain said material contents up to said brim but movablyadmitting downward telescoping movement of said cap relative to saidwall under external vertical load without imparting vertical overloadtothe lower portions of said wall, said wall and said means 'beingcontinuous and imperforate and adapted to confine a brimful quantity ofsaid material contents therein prior to the closure thereof by saidupper cap member, said cap member when subjected to external verticalload tending to move downwardly relative to lower portions of said walland to lower portions of said material contents and displacing saidmeans and bearing upon and compacting said material contents, thevertical height of the said means above said wall being notsubstantially shorter than the amount by which the said materialcontents are compacted under the load intended to be supported upon saidcap whereby displacement of said means under external vertical loadtransfers external vertical load from said wall to the said materialcontents of the container and compacts said material contents anddevelops its load bearing strength in support of said external verticalload and in preservation of said wall.

2. The container of claim 1 with anti-friction means interposed betweensaid contents and at least the lower portions of said wall.

3. The container of claim 1 with a sheet of flexible material having alower frictional relation to the contents of the container than theinner surface of said wall has to said contents disposed between saidwall and said contents.

4. The container of claim 3 in which said sheet also comprises saidmovable means.

5. The container of claim 1 in which said means comprises a weakenedportion of said wall.

6. The container of claim 1 in which said wall comprises double facedcorrugated board having liners and said means comprises an extension ofone of the liners thereof.

7. The container of claim 1 in which said means comprises an extensionof said wall telescopically related to the upper end thereof.

8. A bulk packaging container holding as much as about a cubic yard ofdry bulk material and filled with dry bulk material and having strengthto support vertical external load exceeding the weight of its owncontents, comprising a vertical right cylindrical wall of less strengthin vertical compression than that required to support such an externalload but having strength in circumferential tension, a bottom closure,and an upper cap telescopically overlying and receiving the upper end ofsaid wall, means at the upper end of said wall comprising the brimthereof having strength to contain said material up to the brim butmovably admitting downward telescoping movement of said cap relative tosaid wall under 8 external vertical load without imparting verticaloverload to the lower portions of said wall, said wall and said meansbeing continuous and imperforate and confining a brimiul quantity ofsaid material therein prior to the closure thereof by said upper capmember, said cap member when subjected to external vertical load tendingto move downwardly relative to lower portions of said wall and to lowerportions of said material and displacing said means and bearing upon andcompacting said material contents, whereby displacement of said meanstransfers external vertical load from said wall to the contentsReferences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS BrackJune 9, 1931 Mefiord May 7, 1957

